Design
If I have to describe the phone to you without showing it to you, I’d say it is a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 without the top and bottom bezel and a much prettier back. Oh, and the weight is also similar. The OnePlus 7 Pro comes in at 206g. That might seem heavy, but you’ll get used to the weight quite fast and actually lends itself to the sturdy feel of the device.
I have the Mirror Gray version of the device. The choice of colour is a personal one, and I feel that the nuanced look of the grey is better than a less traditional one like blue. You can look at the colour in the pictures below, and I’ll just say that the in-hand feel for this variant is like the Mirror Black OnePlus 6/6T. All this glass does make the phone slippery, but then most of us are going to use a case with it so that’s a moot point.
The sides of the phone are made of metal. The left side has the volume buttons, and the right side holds the power button and the Alert Slider. The buttons are firm and well raised - you won’t accidentally press them. The Alert slider seems to be longer that the older devices and smoother. I absolutely love this, because I often end up muting the OnePlus 6 when I wanted to set it to vibrate.
On the bottom, you have a speaker, the USB-C 3.0 port, and the SIM Tray. The SIM Tray is worth talking about, as it is double sided this time. We still do not have a microSD card slot on the phone, which is sad, but then you do have a 128GB+ of storage on the phone. The bottom microphone is inside the speaker grille.
The top has the fun stuff - a secondary microphone and the fancy pop-up front camera. The camera itself has a motor rated for 300,000 uses. In theory this means you can use the motor 80 times a day for 10 years. OnePlus claims that there is drop protection as the phone will attempt to retract the camera if it detects a fall, but do not go testing that claim. I dropped it from a distance of about a two feet and it retracted the camera in time, so take my word here. They’ve also put up this video of the camera lifting a 22 kg block of cement, though, so it should be durable.
The back of the phone has the camera array, and some logos. Depending on your variant, you’ll get different amount of branding on the back. My variant, the GM 1917 has just the OnePlus Logo and the name on the bottom. This is the cleanest variant. The other variants, especially those shipped to Europe, would most likely also contain some regulatory branding and a 48 MP inscription on the camera assembly. All of it is written under the glass, so it cannot be removed.
In my opinion, the build quality is pretty good and more importantly, the weight is well-distributed. This is a large phone, with its 6.5-inch screen, so it is important for it to not be top-heavy or it’ll just fall out of your hands. Personally, I hate that it is a glass phone, and would have taken even polycarbonate over it. It is a fingerprint magnet, and just increases repair costs by a large amount. Either way, I strongly suggest you use a case with it, since there is practically zero bezel to protect the phone if it falls.
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